Bad News
by RAHbooks
Summary: A LEP captain visits the Short family, but it's not a social call. Rated K  because a charecter is dead but not actually shown dying.


**This is for drangonfly999 who suggested I write about Root delivering the news about Holly's father after I mentioned it in my other fic, Young and Stupid. If you haven't read Young and Stupid this might be a little confusing since my OC is involved, but you should be able to figure it out. Fiona is Holly's older sister. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl. Fiona is mine. The plot is mine. As far as I know I am the first to give Holly's father a name. Anyone else who wants to use it is welcome to. **

Holly sat on her sister Fiona's bed watching as the older elf packed. At sixty, Holly was old enough to understand why her sister was leaving, but still young enough not to like it. "I'll never see you," she complained.

"That's not true, I'll visit for holidays and such. Besides it could give you a chance to see the surface more often." Fiona replied, getting a bit annoyed at her younger sister's pouting. Fiona was eighty and had just graduated from college. She was leaving to work at an archeological dig on the surface.

"So what am I supposed to do? I'll get bored without you to drive me crazy," Holly asked.

"I thought you were the one who drives me crazy! Especially right now. Look you still have school to finish and deciding what you want to do afterwards. And you can always visit Grandma and Aunt V. Someone has to keep Caleb company. Not to mention those books you always have your nose stuck in. You have no excuse to be bored, if you have a brain you have something to do," she cocked her head to one side as if she had just remembered something. "Oh, that's right, you don't have a brain!"

"Why do you think I'm flunking math?" Holly muttered. She knew she was supposed to argue the point, but she wasn't in the mood. This was exactly the kind of thing she was going to miss.

The Short sisters looked up as there was a knock on the door. Without a word they both went into the main room of the house to see what was going on. Their mother answered the door to reveal an elf in a LEP uniform, helmet tucked under one arm.

"Mrs. Short? I'm Captain Julius Root. I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"What is it?" Coral asked, a tremor in her voice.

Holly and Fiona looked at each other. Like their mother they knew an officer other than their father showing up at the door could only mean that something bad had happened. And their father wasn't home yet. Holly looked at the clock and realized he should have been. She tried to stop herself from panicking. Maybe he was only hurt. Maybe he was missing and they could find him. Looking at the captain's face, she doubted it.

"Your husband, Commander Audacious Short, was…" he hesitated as it not saying it could change it. "He was killed in action today." He looked as though he wanted to say more, but couldn't think of what. Coral gasped and grabbed onto the doorframe as if to keep herself from falling. Fiona rushed to her side and helped her back in. The captain left, hesitantly as if he wanted to do more, but his job was done.

Holly stood frozen where she was. It couldn't be true! He was a Commander, he could survive anything no matter what the odds were. What had he been doing in action anyway? Commander was a desk job! He should have been safe! Why hadn't magic healed him? She suddenly wanted to run out the door and demand a better explanation from the captain.

She looked back at her sister and her mother. This was where she needed to be now. Explanations could wait, if they ever came at all. What mattered now was for the rest of her family to stick together. She stiffened as she remembered. They weren't going to stick together. Fiona was going to the surface! What if she was caught? But she knew her sister would never change her mind. How many times had her mother tried to talk her father out of the LEP before they had married? And even after, for fear something like this would happen. And now it had. But stubbornness was a family trait. Fiona had always dreamed of being an archaeologist, and she would never give up on that dream. Holly wouldn't ask her to.

**The ending didn't suck too much did it? I will probably do another chapter about Holly getting the news of her mom's accident and another about her hearing what happened to Fiona since she's not in the books. If I explain the whole story about what happened to Commander Audacious Short (what did you think of the name?) it will be in a separate fanfic since this one is about the news. I'll probably wait until I'm finished with Young and Stupid to do that since I'm not sure how long it would be. We'll see.**

**Reviewers get fudge! Non-reviewers get exterminated by my Dalek. Just as soon as Artemis finishes fixing it. It exterminated a character.**

**Thanks and prayer,**

**RAHbooks **


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